Let's be honest people's brains absolutely can turn off when they appear on a quiz. It's a weird and stressful situation. Especially if you remember that all of your mistakes will be broadcast to millions of people and commented on and intensely scrutinized.
I'll give him credit for using a lifeline when he truly needed it. Better to use it and get it right than guess and risk having the game end at the first question.
A zebra is closer to the size of a donkey than a horse, and donkeys have about 5 horsepower, so a 200hp car would be about 40zf (zebra force). Also, since horses actually have about 15 horsepower, that same car would be about 13ahp (actual horse power). Llamas are also about the size of a donkey, so probably similar numbers.
Disclaimer: I'm not a scientist and these numbers came from my ass.
He says that she's alive and well and has been busy devoting her time to Scientology and is definitely not dead or being held captive or anything, so I shouldn't "worry my pretty head about it, sweet cheeks." I should note that he was born in the 40's.
Horsepower isn't a measure of how much power one horse can produce at any time, but rather over an entire day. It's roughly the number of horses an engine could replace running 24/7.
Running a horse at 15 horsepower would tire it out rather quickly, so you'd need many teams of horses rotated around to maintain 15 horsepower.
The charitable interpretation is — for maybe some of them anyway — people who wanted to make it look like it wasn't that obvious of an answer and make him feel less bad about it
